Sources: Resignation of Marsh's Greenberg Likely for Next Week

October 22, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Rumors swirled through the financial services industry Friday that embattled Marsh & McLennan chief executive officer Jeffrey Greenberg will step down - a move which sources later said likely won't take place until next week.

Unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal at mid-afternoon Friday that Greenberg’s situation was still fluid as the firm’s independent directors mull their options, including candidates for an interim CEO.

The world’s largest insurance broker is unlikely to name Jules Kroll as its interim CEO, people familiar with the matter said, contradicting earlier reports which indicated that Kroll was under consideration. Kroll is the former chairman of Kroll Inc., an investigative firm that Marsh bought for $1.9 billion in a deal that closed in July.

Marsh is battling a civil suit filed last week in which New York Attorney Eliot Spitzer accused it of rigging bids for corporate clients’ insurance contracts. In unveiling the suit last week, Spitzer accused the company of misleading his investigators, said he wouldn’t negotiate with Marsh’s top management and all but called on the company’s directors to dislodge Greenberg.

The Journal reported earlier Friday that some of Marsh’s independent directors were talking this week with Spitzer about having Greenberg step aside to jump start settlement talks in the case.

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